<p>Decreasing appeal of their original business model? </p>
<p>Is that comment directed at Wesleyan? At other highly selective LACs? At LACs in general? </p>
<p>Does a school that “collects” around 10,000 applications show evidence of … a decreasing appeal? Do school that STILL maintain a focus on excellence in teaching the undergraduate, and relies mostly on professors to provide the education appear to have a decreasing appeal? </p>
<p>Do the academic factories have a better business model? And especially for … undergraduates? </p>
<p>Really? </p>
<p>PS Regarding three years degress, you may want to take a look at Europe, where it has become the standard.</p>
<p>In most of Europe graduating from HS in college prep means much more than in the US and in college you only take your major–no gen ed stuff. Not comparable at all.</p>
<p>I just dug up and read the blog from Wesleyan president Roth about graduating in 3 years (apparently he did it at Wesleyan in the 70’s). He talks about ways to make the university more affordable. I don’t think it is due to decreasing appeal at this time, but a look forward.</p>
<p>"In a new model we are developing we will be committed to spending almost a third of our revenue on scholarships while meeting the financial need of our students without requiring excessive loans. We will also commit to linking tuition increases with inflation, rather than depending on the much higher rates of increase to which Wesleyan (like most colleges and universities) has been accustomed for decades.</p>
<p>We will also make more visible and provide more support for the three year route that I chose in the mid 1970s. That is, we will help those students who choose to graduate in six semesters (along with some summer work) get the most out of their time on campus. The three-year option isnt for everyone, but for those students who are prepared to develop their majors a little sooner, shorten their vacations by participating in summer sessions, and take advantage of the wealth of opportunities on campus, this more economical BA might be of genuine interest."</p>
<p>When my daughter was considering Georgetown a few years ago, we talked about her graduating in three years. She ended up making a different choice, but she could have easily graduated this year after three years if she had wanted to.</p>
<p>Mamabear, I think decreasing demand is EXACTLY why the Wesleyan president is spewing this babble. To his credit, however, he definitely is looking forward, and presciently sees that his kind of designer LAC, formerly the showcase of the famed college admissions book “The Gatekeepers” from a few years back (when things were good), and at a full-pay cost of over $53,000 per year this last cycle, is the target of economic upheaval. Unless the Wesleyan endowment is huge (and what constitutes THAT?), this is one of ‘those’ schools’ IMO.</p>
<p>Let’s be fair, give him five years and take a bet on how many 3-year graduates he has propelled through. More importantly, let’s go about 8 years out & see how many of those 3-year grads have meaningful jobs.</p>
<p>With a 22% admission rate and a 34% yield, I hardly think Wesleyan is in extremis or worried about not having enough students. There certainly are colleges that are endangered, but Wesleyan surely is not one of them.</p>
<p>And the fact that overall, college admissions have remained strong in the face of skyrocketing costs and the worst economic downturn in most of our lifetimes makes me believe that other than a few marginal cases, no college is in imminent danger of folding.</p>
<p>I’ve been reading the Chronicle of Higher Ed for many years and, yes, Wesleyan is definitely worried as are many other top schools. They are wisely looking into the not-too-distant future. Higher education is entering a time of rapid change. Yes, they have a 22% admission rate now, but they are wise to not be complacent.</p>
<p>Well, EVERY institution has to be worried. Universities with twenty billion dollars in endowment are worried. But that does NOT mean their educational model shows a decreasing appeal. You took a reasonable fact but added an utterly non-sensical editorial comment. </p>
<p>Private schools such as Wesleyan have a lot more flexibility than the hopelessly underfunded, non-competitive institutions that are nothing but academic factories serving the lowest common denominator with public finances.</p>
<p>Calm down xiggi…why so emotional? I was just sharing something I read with the discussion board with absolutely no agenda in mind, but you seem to have one.</p>
<p>We’ll see. I think a lot of these $50K plus per year full-pay LAC’s are in for a rude awakening down the road. It may take 5-10 years for places like Wesleyan, and other ‘underfunded, non-competitive institutions’ as you say, xiggi, might feel pain before that. But you will see a lot of emperors without clothes before this is all done.</p>
<p>Emotional? Ooooook! And what is my agenda? Defending poor Wesleyan? I leave that to JohnWesley. </p>
<p>As far as sharing the story, if the actual story was about the decreasing appeal of the school, I must apologize. Was that the case?</p>
<p>Quoting.<br>
Wesleyan Announces Three-Year Degree
May 25, 2012 - 3:00am
Wesleyan University president Michael S. Roth announced in a Washington Post blog post that the university will offer a three-year undergraduate degree. Roth says a three-year degree could save students about 20 percent off the cost of a degree. Roth, who graduated in three years when he was a student at Wesleyan in the 1970s, said the program is not for everyone but could be a pathway embraced by students concerned about the cost of education. While many colleges offer three-year degree programs, most of them have been at public universities rather than small, private liberal arts colleges, many of which have stressed the intangible benefits of the four-year undergraduate experience.</p>
<p>Re: Wesleyan three year bachelor’s degree program</p>
<p>At most colleges, students with at least half a semester’s worth of AP/IB/college credit upon graduation from high school can do something similar by taking three summer sessions in place of one and a half regular semesters’ worth of courses. Of course, to be a money saver, the cost of three summer sessions has to be less than that of the two semesters. Perhaps if the summer sessions were used to take transferable general education courses at an inexpensive community college, that could be a pretty big savings (Wesleyan’s academic year list price cost of attendance is around $60,000; the web site does not seem to have a summer cost of attendance.)</p>
<p>Entrance into the work force earlier can be an advantage, but the lack of summer jobs and such may make it harder to get a job at graduation.</p>
<p>What about online classes in the summer or winter? I’m actually doing three this summer towards a business minor, and I might do one this winter just so I can avoid a large lecture hall.</p>
<p>UVa is encouraging more students to graduate in 3 or 3.5 years using their AP credits so they can make more room for more Virginian students with the same facilities. It has to do with a priority of the Governor of increasing the number of degrees across the state.</p>
<p>Right now, many UVa students use their AP credits to get a double major because they like the college and town too much and don’t want to leave early.</p>
<p>^ If double major is not allowed then some students have to leave in 3-3.5 years. The question is if double majoring helps them find a job upon graduation or a 3-3.5 year degree is as good.</p>
<p>I can’t imagine there would be any type of notation on a degree that said “three years.” There’s no notation on a degree now to indicate that Johnny took 6 years to finish his BA.</p>
This is what my S is doing at Marshall University. His first major is sports journalism/broadcasting, but he already had half a history major through AP, so he thought “Why not?” He’s still on target to graduate in four years, though.</p>
<p>Lake: I didn’t mean to say that UVa is prohibiting double majors. But they are trying to promote quicker graduations, and make the process streamlined. They already require that all undergrads take a full course load unless they get permission for unique circumstances, and they prohibit getting a second bachelors degree at UVa. </p>
<p>The State of Va. also has a process that can increase tuition if you take too many credits - because too many people were staying around too long in college and taking up a seat that was needed for another student. The population of Virginia increased by about 15 percent in 10 years, but seats in public colleges hadn’t increased in comparable numbers.</p>